Crafting modern, captivating, and worthwhile products and services is challenging. Yet even after building something great, attracting and amassing customers can be arduous. As companies push to create the next big thing, they need to ground these next-gen innovations in our existing mental models so we’re willing to give them a chance. Does this limit the pace and scope of innovation though?

A lesson from sushi adoption in America

In the 1970s, few Americans ate sushi. Raw fish and seaweed were too far out for the average eater.

Then the California Roll was born, combining familiar ingredients in a new way. In Los Angeles, chefs used local avocado instead of tuna, which was hard to find. The breakthrough was when one chef made the roll inside out — showcasing rice on the outside and hiding the seaweed in the middle. This presentation made it more familiar and palatable to Americans.

“People don’t want something truly new, they want the familiar done differently.”

The neuroscience behind change and uncertainty

Our brain favors familiarity

When we’re born, our brains are malleable. Over time, we learn how to survive and reduce negative consequences, and our brains develop habits based on these learnings. Habits make us more efficient by reducing the need for conscious thought and relearning, however they can make it more difficult for us to accept and enact change.

“The more you do something the more ingrained it becomes in neural pathways, much like how a computer that stores the sites you visit…Change is an upheaval of many things and the brain has to work to fit it into an existing framework.”

Learning new information is easier when it’s composed of familiar elements

Research has shown that it’s easier to learn new things if they’re composed of familiar chunks. Grounding new knowledge in our existing knowledge allows us to grasp things more quickly.

For example, in math class you wouldn’t teach students about fractions until they understand multiplication and division. Ideally new concepts are introduced by making connections and building on top of concepts we’ve already mastered.

Humans like routines

Additionally, humans are creators of habit. We love developing and maintaining routines because they feel safe, secure, and comfortable.

Neuroscience shows that our brain registers uncertainty and error similarly. We need to address or remove uncertainty before we feel comfortable again, which can make us fear change and its unknown outcomes.

While change presents both possibilities and problems, most people prefer to reject the possibilities if it guarantees avoiding the problems.

What this means for business and innovation

This inherent aversion to change can complicate things for organizations producing radical innovations — no matter how valuable and beneficial they may be. If customers can’t quickly make sense of a new product, it will be hard to win them over and gain traction.

“People are generally resistant to teaching and training because it requires effort. This clashes with the natural wiring of human adults: We are fundamentally lazy. As a result, products that require people to learn new things routinely fail.”

In order to introduce new ideas successfully, we need to ground them in the familiar.

Early computer interfaces

When developing the personal computer, Apple need to translate the complex into the intuitive. They developed a graphical user interface with familiar visual metaphors — folders, notepads, and trash cans — to charm everyday people who were fearful of the command-line interface.

Apple still uses these tried and true methods to help users adopt new behaviors. For example, Apple Wallet eased people into the novel technology by displaying it as mini credit cards, which perfectly fit our mental models and built on our existing understanding.

Plant based food products

Lab grown and plant based meat could feel a little too sci-fi for the average consumer. In order to gain widespread acceptance and trust, companies heavily reference and build upon their animal based predecessors (i.e. tofurky almond milk, and veggie burgers).

The Impossible Burger is purposely marketed as a burger, not a mound of soy protein concentrate. Burgers are familiar and beloved, and evoking these feelings has made Impossible Burger quite successful.

Electric vehicles

Additionally, as Tesla designed cars of the future, they had fewer functional constraints since electric vehicles don’t need to accommodate a hot, bulky engine. However, they realized they still needed to align their car design with people’s mental models so people would be willing to give them a chance.

Tesla included a full-size fake grille on the original Model S, reducing its size over time until finally removing it in the Model 3. Functionally it was never needed, but it eased customers’ understanding and adjustment.

As customers became more familiar with their brand and capabilities, Tesla was able to evolve and purify its designs.